Wait. What?

springlering62

I clicked through out of curiosity. No context whatsoever. Just, change your calorie goal for a day.

Your thoughts?

nossmf

I'm assuming you responded to a post, where the original post (and possibly author) has been removed by staff, leaving your comment somewhat confusing.

springlering62

nossmf wrote: »

I'm assuming you responded to a post, where the original post (and possibly author) has been removed by staff, leaving your comment somewhat confusing.

Nope. Look at the screen shot I got when opening MFP this afternoon. It comes acrost as encouraging cutting loose on the weekend, and clicking through, it simply took me to the goals page so I could adjust my goal temporarily.

Those of us who’ve been here know to bank calories etc, but imagine a newb, being given free license to change calories for a weekend?

Terrible implementation.

nossmf

I presume setting different calorie goals for different days is a premium feature which cheapskates like me have no access to, lol. Unless it's encouraging changing goals for the weekend, but neglects to have you change the goals back again come Monday. Either way, I also cry foul.

sollyn23l2

Yep, probably a premium feature they're trying to sell, as a lot of people like to restrict through the workweek and then go wild for a day on the weekend.

robertw486

It seems like it's not a bad idea. A lot of people want to go out to eat, more social activities, etc on their day off, weekend or not. The more people can customize what they want to do, the more it might help.

Not that I would probably use it myself. If I have plans that include more food, I either cut a little through the week, or pay the price after the fact. I'd be too lazy to set custom goals. Because what if you set that goal at 6,000 calories for the day but eat 7,000 anyway?






























And yes, I have logged days around 7,000 calories. I still dropped weight that week.

AnnPT77

nossmf wrote: »

I presume setting different calorie goals for different days is a premium feature which cheapskates like me have no access to, lol. Unless it's encouraging changing goals for the weekend, but neglects to have you change the goals back again come Monday. Either way, I also cry foul.

Yes, different calories on different days is a premium feature.

springlering62 wrote: »

nossmf wrote: »

I'm assuming you responded to a post, where the original post (and possibly author) has been removed by staff, leaving your comment somewhat confusing.

Nope. Look at the screen shot I got when opening MFP this afternoon. It comes acrost as encouraging cutting loose on the weekend, and clicking through, it simply took me to the goals page so I could adjust my goal temporarily.

Those of us who’ve been here know to bank calories etc, but imagine a newb, being given free license to change calories for a weekend?

Terrible implementation.

It's a little too context-free, yeah. Not a complete sensible message to give to new people . . . but if they only get it when they don't have premium, and MFP is trying to sell them premium, I'm not sure how much direct harm it will do. There would be multiple steps between seeing the message, and (mis-)using the feature.

springlering62

If I were just starting, and had not studied the boards and stickies as careful as I did, this would have no meaning whatsoever to me, and I’d take it as a “get out of jail card” to stuff my face.

I could rationalize this to death.

I don’t think I’m that different from the average overweight person. (There will always be an overweight person hiding inside, loss notwithstanding, if ya know what I mean.)

Yes. Context is what it needs.

cmriverside

I think this is a bad implementation, but I understand the psychology and the biology behind it.

Meh. We all make up our numbers for the most part. I really wish I could say I stay ON point with my calories. I really struggled with staying in calories during weight loss, so having a planned "cheat" day seems useful - BUT!!! It does need an explanation. A long one.

baizli

the psychology behind it is simple: my fitness pal make money from people with premium, people tend to stick around on the site until they're happy with their weight, so giving them an opportuntiy to accidentally overindulge if they don't know what they're doing is in their best interests (making money). They're one of the biggest sites for fitness & weight management- they would know adding a disclaimer would stop people from overindulging when they shouldn't. And yet, here we are.

To be clear: f you're careful, of course you can eat more than usual as a treat- it's all CICO after all. My concern is people trying to eat better and paying to do so, (not really knowing how weight loss works, and trusting the website they found) and assuming this popup is an endorsement that it's fine, or even good to do whatever you want sometimes. Note the phrasing of "Adjust your calorie goals[..]"; it's a statement telling you what to do, not a suggestion. a subtle dark pattern not everyone will catch

springlering62

@baizli the dark bitter and suspicious side of me agrees with you to an extent.

I don’t think it was done for quite that reason, or I’d hope not.

SafariGalNYC

I do weekly calories so having custom days isn’t new to me.

I do think the marketing message was - you can loosen your goals to splurge on the weekend.

Question is .. why was this marketing encouraged? It’s a business. If people feel good that they aren’t going over cals.. they feel better about themselves.

If you have people loosening their goals… then they stay on MFP longer because it takes them longer to achieve. Business metrics.

AnnPT77

I think it's much easier to construct a conspiracy theory after the fact than it is for actual humans to put together a conspiracy and make it work.

Maybe MFP is doing this to enhance revenue, I don't know. Don't really care.

Yes, going hog-wild every weekend will tank chances of weight loss success. Experience here suggests to me that if most people don't achieve weight loss success quickly, they quickly give up, not stay on MFP forever. Yeah, they'll be back eventually, maybe, for another abortive try. Probably around January 1?

There are a few people who are here and back routinely, maybe that's revenue enhancing. There are also a cadre of people who've been here steadily long term, and it seems like many of them have made progress.

We also get people here who are wound waaay too tight, hitting it too hard, crazy-low calories, punitively intense exercise. They're on their way (mostly) to the "discouragement, quit" scenario. That's not revenue enhancing. They'd be better off individually if they did relax a little on the weekend, and eat somewhat more. Not way above maintenance, but more. And if they did, they'd probably stay around longer. They might even see some success, and realize that extreme restriction isn't the best route to accomplish weight loss success. Heck, if they stick around, succeed longer term, they may even tell their friends, and maybe their friends will join MFP. That would be revenue enhancing.

The theory that MFP posted that ad to make people stay around because they can't lose weight while indulging on the weekend, even pay for premium while failing . . . that seems really simplistic to me.